Leading Through Change In Academic Medicine

Lisa Ishii, M.D., M.H.S., is senior vice president of operations for Johns Hopkins Health System.

Dr. Ishii is responsible for collaborating with executive leaders across Johns Hopkins Medicine in the development and execution of the health system integration strategy and assisting in the oversight of the clinical roadmap.

Dr. Ishii is an internationally recognized leader in and professor of otolaryngology and neck surgery. Since coming to Johns Hopkins for her residency and fellowship training, she has demonstrated a commitment to innovative and high-value patient care and expert research. She joined the faculty after completing her training and steadily climbed the academic ladder in the school of medicine, achieving the rank of professor in 11 years. Dr. Ishii established an NIH-funded outcomes research laboratory and has mentored a number of medical students, residents, fellows and junior faculty.

Dr. Ishii established her clinical practice in Johns Hopkins’ free-standing ambulatory clinics and surgery centers and became the medical director of the Johns Hopkins White Marsh Surgery Center in 2008. In 2013, she partnered with leaders across the system to establish the Ambulatory Surgery Center Coordinating Council to harmonize patient safety and quality across JHM’s nine ambulatory surgery centers and hospital outpatient departments. In 2016, she was named the chief quality officer for ambulatory procedures for the health system. She serves on the board of the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center Series, and in 2018 she was asked to serve as a consultant for The Leapfrog Group in its new evaluation of ambulatory surgery centers.

In 2012, Dr. Ishii was invited to serve as senior medical director for clinical integration in the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians. In this role, she was asked to support clinical care and supply chain standardization across the care continuum for Johns Hopkins Health System. She worked with leadership in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to develop a project management office for clinical communities and care pathways. The office created a standard process to develop and implement clinical care pathways across the care continuum.

Dr. Ishii has published extensively in peer-reviewed publications and written multiple book chapters. She has received numerous teaching and leadership awards locally and nationally. She serves as an associate editor for specialty journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. In her role as the research and quality coordinator for the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery from 2013 to 2018, she led the task force that developed the specialty’s first clinical data registry, Reg-ent. She is a board member and vice president for research and quality for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and is a board member for the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Florida State University, her master’s degree in health science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her doctor of medicine degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine.

M. Eugene Tardy III, the oldest of four children, grew up in southern Indiana. He attended Bloomington High School, graduating academically as the top male student in his class, captained the tennis team, and captured the Indiana State Boys as well as Junior tennis titles. Indiana University awarded him a varsity tennis scholarship, where he competed for 3 years and earned an AB degree in Biology and Zoology before beginning medical school at Indiana University in 1956.

His general internship was spent at Tampa General Hospital, where he continued his training in General / Cardiovascular Surgery until being drafted into the US Air Force during the Berlin crisis. After attending flight surgeon’s school, he was appointed to the post of Commander of the 838th TAC Hospital, and earned the USAF Flight Surgeon of the Year award in 1961. A highlight of military service involved selection as the medical officer and consultant for the Special Forces HALO (high altitude low opening) parachute project, where he was awarded the US Air Force Air Medal for rescuing a paratrooper entangled in a harness during an open hatch parachute drop at 43,000 feet.

Dr. Tardy completed his residency in Otolaryngology at the University of Illinois in Chicago as the Executive Resident, completing a post-residency Fellowship in Facial Plastic Surgery which led to an offer of an academic position in the department in 1968. Dr. Tardy founded the first facial plastic surgery division within the department, and served as the consultant for the Craniofacial Anomalies Center of the university.During his career he held the title of Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology at the University of Illinois and Indiana University School of Medicine, as well as Instructor at Northwestern University.

Among other professional leadership responsibilities, Dr. Tardy was elected as President of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, President of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, and President of the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.Honorary Fellowships and memberships have been awarded to Dr. Tardy by the Jacques Joseph Society, The Royal College of Medicine of Great Britain, the Australian Society of Otolaryngology, the South African Society of Otolaryngology, the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery, the German Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the Austrian Academy of Otolaryngology, the German Society for ENT-Head and Neck Surgery, the Rhinoplasty Society, the Polish Society of Rhinology, the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology, the Brazilian Society Plastic Surgical Society.

Dr. Tardy served as the founder ofFacial Plastic Surgery Monographs, as well as on the editorial boards of the Archives of Otolaryngology, the Laryngoscope, the Annals of Otolaryngology, the AMA Archives of Otolaryngology, the Jugoslavian Journal of Otolaryngology. Academic contributions include the authoring or co-authoring 18 medical textbooks, over 160 scientific articles.He has participated at over 400 venues as guest professor/faculty lecturer at universities world-wide. During his years of practice and teaching Dr. Tardy was regularly cited as one of the “Best Doctors in America” in Chicago magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Town and Country and Good Housekeeping.

In 2005, the inaugural M. Eugene Tardy, MD Lectureship in Facial Plastic Surgery and the Humanities was established at the University of Illinois, held in conjunction with the Department of Otolaryngology’s Alumni Day.Dr. Tardy is married to Martha Heindel Tardy, with three daughters and seven grandchildren.

Margins in Head and Neck Cancer: Novel Approaches and New Ways of Thinking

Dr. Sid Puram is Chief of Head and Neck Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Director of the Head and Neck Tumor Center at Siteman, and Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Genetics.

Dr. Puram graduated from MIT, followed by an MD-PhD at Harvard Medical School. He went on to residency at Harvard/Massachusetts Eye and Ear with an in-folded postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Bradley Bernstein and Aviv Regev at the MIT Broad Institute/Massachusetts General. Thereafter, he completed a surgical oncology/microvascular free flap fellowship at the James Cancer Center/Ohio State University.

Currently, Dr. Puram maintains a clinical practice focused on head and neck oncologic surgery, including transoral robotic surgery, open skull base approaches, and microvascular reconstruction. His multiple R01-funded group has been a leader in genetic, transcriptional, and epigenetic heterogeneity in head and neck cancer and its relationship to cancer phenotypes including metastasis and treatment response, with pioneering work in single cell sequencing. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles, including studies in Nature, Cell, and Nature Genetics, and delivered over 40 invited national and international lectures.

He is Co-Chair of the NCI Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium Thyroid Working Group, Co-Chair of the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Translational Committee, Chair of the Microvascular Committee for the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and an active member of the NCI Recurrent/Metastatic Task Force and NRG Head and Neck Core Committee.

Dr. Burton J. Soboroff, a beloved physician and teacher in the UIC Otolaryngology Department, established the endowment that makes this Lectureship and Resident Research Symposium possible. His dedication to this department as well as the practice of Otolaryngology will be remembered for years to come. It is an honor for us to have this day to recognize the contributions of this great individual.

Dr. Soboroff was educated at Northwestern University where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1938. He attended Northwestern University Medical School , receiving his M.D. degree in 1942.
Dr. Soboroff then interned at Cook County Hospital from 1941-43; Residency at the Eye and Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Cook County Hospital from 1946-1949 and Residency in Head and Neck Surgery at Hines VA Hospital in 1949-1951. He served in the Air Force Medical Corps from 1943-46.

He became a Senior Attending in the Department starting in 1951 and was Interim Department Head in 1975-76 and 1977-79. After his retirement in 1988, at the age of 70, he held an Emeritus position in this department until he passed away in 2004. The Burton J. Soboroff Lectureship was established in 2001 and continues to be funded through gifts from former residents, colleagues, friends and admirers. We honor Dr. Soboroff and his contributions through this Lectureship.